Political Amnesia
Those whose collective past is badly scarred
By such brutal confinement and killing,
Might be expected to be unwilling
To allow their hearts to become so hard
As to emulate their persecutors
Through perpetrating a modern Childermass,
When self-defence is not even a crass
Excuse. It’s always the innocent in wars
Whose lives too often end being cheaply spent.
When even the hospitals are burning,
It appears there may be no learning,
No lessens drawn down from any recent
History. All seems power and vanity;
Yet there is choice, to choose humanity.
D. A.